When Jennifer, a 28-year-old Manhattan high-school teacher, decided to have her body enhanced with breast implants and a Brazilian butt-lift six months ago, she agreed to let her plastic surgeon, Dr. Matthew Schulman, post clips throughout the operation on Snapchat, the popular social-media app. (Jennifer declined to give her last name for privacy reasons.)
“I get a million views on Snapchat per day,’’ says Schulman, who specializes in body work. “I was looking for a platform to show surgeries in a way that was realistic and not sensationalized or glamorized as is commonly done for television, essentially letting the viewers into my world with a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at my office and staff.’’
Surgical voyeurism has reached new heights in the decade since “Nip/Tuck,” the scripted FX show about plastic surgery, became a hit. Increasingly, doctors are filming procedures and posting them to YouTube and Snapchat.
Dermatologist Sandra Lee, known as Dr. Pimple Popper, began displaying her extractions on Instagram two years ago and then graduated to YouTube. Miami plastic surgeon Michael Salzhauer, who goes by the name Dr. Miami, is credited as being the first to use Snapchat in real time during his surgeries — he even has an operating room soundtrack and has been known to bust a move for the camera. His following grew at an astounding rate, and New York plastic surgeon Schulman was quick to follow.
Schulman, who records about seven or eight surgeries a week, started streaming his 10-second video clips about a year ago. He films an introduction to the procedure, and then a nurse or assistant shoots with a cellphone during the operation. In May, he hosted his first live-stream on BuzzFeed — removing excess skin from a man who had lost nearly 300 pounds — which got broadcast to the site’s 10 million Facebook followers.
While the videos are meant to be educational, they’re also a powerful marketing tool with millennials. Schulman says 90 percent of his patients allow him to stream their surgeries. “The demographic is mostly 18- to 32[-year-olds],’’ he explains. “About 80 percent of the people who come to see me for a consultation are already following me on Snapchat, so my patients tend to be more aware and engaged in social media.’’
Viewers of these medical clips fall into two groups — those wanting to learn about surgeries they may undergo, and those simply mesmerized by what they see.
Erin Toland, a 36-year-old digital creative director for Lincoln Center, has consented to let dermatologist Dr. Snehal Amin broadcast her face when he vaporizes the top layers of her skin with a carbon dioxide laser at the end of June. He will live-stream the half-hour rejuvenating process via YouTube, which will allow people to watch her in real time.
“I’m not about media celebrity, I just think it’s awesome to be able to get your face lasered, and I don’t mind showing other people how well it works,’’ says the Upper West Sider. “Laser is not something taboo, but even if it were a face-lift I wouldn’t care if anyone sees me — I’m pretty transparent that way.”
While Amin has recorded about 20 procedures in the past, Toland’s will be the first he does live. “We had been hesitant to do it before because there are things you can’t control about live TV and it can breach privacy issues, but this is part of a general trend of people becoming more aware of health,’’ he says. “Patients sign a generic written consent [form] saying that their photos can be used for marketing and educational purposes, and 90 percent say OK, but with video we have to ask again specifically, and sometimes they take back their consent. On the day of the procedure, we will have them sign one more time.’’
But critics say that even when patients give written consent, they may be signing up for more than they bargained for.
“A doctor-patient relationship should be a sacred one and patient safety should be the No. 1 priority,’’ says Dan Mills, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, who believes that live-streaming surgery is inappropriate and pushes ethical boundaries. “If I happen to be live-streaming a surgery and something goes wrong, am I going to be thinking more about the patient or am I going to be thinking about the live-streaming? That’s why we don’t let family members or friends into the [operating room]. If you let everyone in, that is going to compromise your judgment. You are also adding things to the operating room not ideal for optimum sterility.
“Our ethics committees are working on this as we speak,” Mills adds. “There is no question that some physicians using Snapchat are being unprofessional and lack integrity based on their behavior.”
Amin, for one, says such “concerns are perfectly valid. There are a lot of doctors who are abusing Snapchat and YouTube with material that should not be in the public sphere, like patients having complications or patients getting a discount for live-streaming their surgery.”
Amin adds: “We are not trying to make this into a reality show, we are trying to educate patients.”
We are not trying to make this into a reality show, we are trying to educate patients.
- Dr. Snehal Amin
Jennifer, the teacher who agreed to have her surgery filmed, says she chose Schulman based on his Snapchat videos. “I saw him do the butt-lift, and I liked the results, so I decided to do that as well [as breast augmentation],” she says. “Since Snapchat helped me, I thought it might be helpful for other people if I did this. They blurred my face so I was anonymous.’’
But the videos aren’t helpful for everyone.
Says Mills: “I’ve had a number of patients come in and say, ‘I wish I didn’t watch all that because I’m way more scared than I would have been.’”